Page 58 of About Last Night

I tear my focus away from the bar and lift my beer bottle almost to my lips. “What was the question?” I ask, downing the lukewarm dregs of my IPA.

“Are they talking about me. Me in this question being you.”

“I gathered,” I say. I set the empty bottle on the table with a clink. “There’s something else.” I tell Willa about the kiss in the break room and how Toni ended it.

“So now you want her, but she doesn’t want you,” Willa says.

I bristle. “I wouldn’t put it exactly like that.”

“Sounds like it to me.”

“I love you, Willa, but you don’t always have to be so blunt.”

Willa rolls her eyes. “Yes, I do. Would you really want to be with a woman who witnessed that dumpster fire and then wanted to jump right into bed with you? You know who would do that? Shae, that’s who. Toni is respecting the boundary you set the night you two fucked like rabbits?—”

“Really, Willa.”

“—and you’re too horny to see her rejection for what it is.”

“What is it?”

“Love, dumbass.”

“I’m not ready for that.”

“Toni is smart enough to get that, which is why she put the brakes on.” Willa watches me and must not like what she sees in my expression. She leans forward. “Instead of being pissed that you aren’t going to get laid, why don’t you appreciate the fact that you have a woman who is putting you and what you need first.”

I inhale. “You’re right. Of course, you’re right.”

“I usually am,” Willa says. “I don’t know if it’s this new career direction we’re on, being out of that toxic bitch Shae’s orbit, or Toni, but you’ve been happier in the last few weeks than I’ve seen you in a long time. A long time. I’ve finally gotten my sister back and you better believe I’m going to do whatever I can to make sure she sticks around.”

“I could say the same about you,” I say, and glance at Greta and Toni, who are still in deep conversation.

Greta looks our way and Willa motions for another beer. Greta nods and holds up one finger. Willa returns her attention to me, and I see a small smile on her face. She raises her eyebrows.

“What?”

“Nothing at all.”

Greta returns to the table and hands Willa a beer.

“Did you have to go harvest the hops?” Willa teases.

Greta sits down next to her with a chuckle. “Something like that.”

“Oh my God I’m having flashbacks to college,” I say.

“What do you mean?” Greta asks.

“Don’t listen to her,” Willa says.

“Whenever we would go out, Willa always got drinks bought for her and I never did.”

“Not true,” Willa says.

“It’s totally true, and here we are, yet again.”

Greta points to Toni, who has arrived with my beer.

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